'We got this': Team Roth earns women's Olympic curling berth despite rare gaffe

OMAHA - At first, Nina Roth didn't recognize anything was wrong. With a one-point lead over Jamie Sinclair in Saturday's deciding game at the U.S. Olympic trials, the skip glided down the sheet for the final shot of the ninth end.

Teammate Becca Hamilton was the one who noticed the red sensor light up, signaling an unthinkable mistake. Roth had not released her shot before the hog line, a violation that handed Team Sinclair a two-point steal and the lead with only one end to go. "My heart dropped in my stomach, and I got hot,'' Roth said. "But we got in a huddle, took a deep breath together and said, 'We got this.'''

In the end, Team Roth did, capturing the U.S. Olympic berth in women's curling with a 7-6 victory at Baxter Arena. Tabitha Peterson of Eagan, one of two Minnesotans on the four-member team, got the Roth rink back on track with a spectacular 10th-end runback that set it up for two points and the win.

The final game of the best-of-three playoffs mirrored the first two. A tight, tense 10 ends featured excellent and errant shots from both teams, keeping their emotions roiling for three hours. While Roth made the most shocking mistake, Sinclair made the last one, misfiring on her final shot to end the game.

Roth, of McFarland, Wis., and her teammates—Peterson (Eagan), Hamilton (McFarland, Wis.) and Aileen Geving (Duluth)—are all first-time Olympians, a title that was hard for them to grasp even as gold medals hung around their necks.

"There are no words,'' said Peterson, Team Roth's vice-skip. "It still doesn't feel totally real yet, but I'm really, really excited.

"You have to keep your spirits up, even when stuff like (Roth's violation) happens. All week, it had been back and forth with (Team Sinclair). We knew we had to stick with it, and we knew we could pull out the win.''

Roth opened the game by stealing two points in the first end as Sinclair's final shot came up short. The lead changed hands three more times before Team Roth, trailing 6-5 with one end to go, tamed its nerves and outplayed Sinclair in the 10th end.

"We were able to make a comeback, and we had a chance,'' Sinclair said. "It just wasn't my best performance.''

Roth could empathize. She had some gaffes, too, with none as big as her failure to release the handle on her last rock of the ninth end before it crossed the hog line. USA Curling officials said it's rare to see hog-line violations at this level of play and recalled only one in the entire week of the trials.

Though that gave Sinclair a one-point lead with one end remaining, she said her team didn't want to get "a false sense of security'' from what she deemed a lucky break. It kept pushing in the 10th end until Peterson's shot turned things firmly in Team Roth's favor. Her rock started a chain reaction that knocked out a Sinclair stone from the button and left two Roth rocks in the house.

After Sinclair threw her final rock, Roth prepared to deliver hers—until Peterson recognized the team already had two in scoring position, assuring the victory.

Athletes on the Roth and Sinclair teams have played against and with each other for several years. The current lineups were set two years ago, and the two have been the premier American women's teams since then. Roth finished fifth at the 2017 world championships—qualifying the U.S. for the Olympics--after losing to Sinclair in the U.S. championships.

Seeing the devastation on Team Sinclair's faces, Roth said, added a bittersweet element to the victory. Seeing the joy of her teammates brought her to tears.

"This is what I've worked for since I was 10 years old,'' she said. "I'm in disbelief. It's awesome.

"I'm so proud of my team. They were amazing. When it does hit me, it's going to be great.''